Secrets Revealed
by sole-13
Summary: What lead to the destruction of North America? Why is Chicago divided into 5 factions? Secrets are revealed as Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior, Zoey Redbird, Carter and Sadie Kane and Percy Jackson and their gangs are gathered to reveal the answers. Mega crossover where othere characters may or may not appear(hehe) Give it read..!
1. Introduction

**KATNISS P.O.V**

"Haymitch! You have mail from the capitol! Come down!" I shouted. I grabbed the package and walked towards Haymitch, who was suffering a major hangover (as usual), and handed him the package. I sighed. Ever since the war he would get drunk at nights and suffer in the mornings. I left him alone with the package and went out.

"Katniss! Hey Katniss!" Haymitch's voice called out to me. I turned around and saw him staggering towards me. "Haymitch don't get out of the house! You'll break a bone! Get back inside!"

"Listen sweetheart, we are called to the captiol. You, Peeta, Gale and I. There will be a hovercraft picking us up at 5 p.m sharp."

"Haymitch what are you talking about? Are you drunk again? And besides, Gale is in district 2 remember?"

"Bah! I'm sure they'll pick him up from there! Anyway get ready. They will be here for us in half an hour."

I gulped and nodded. What did they want from us? The rebellion was just over! There can't be another problem already can there? I thought I had some peace at last. But no! Apparently taking my sister away from me wasn't enough. Thinking about my sister was never pleasant. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and entered my room. It was filled with paintings. Paintings given to me by Peeta. I touched the painting of Prim, brushing my fingers against it's rough surface. It was beautiful. Prim looked like an angel in it, her blonde hair framing her innocent face. Her bright blue eyes sparkled. I wiped away a tear from my cheek and changed quickly. I will cope with sister's death the way she would want me to. She wouldn't want me to cry over her. No. Instead, I will remember all the good memories between us. Besides, buttercup was still there right?

I walked towards the door and met Haymitch and Peeta outside.

"Ready?" Peeta's blue eyes looked into mine.

"No."

"Good. Same here."

We held hands as the hovercraft approached us.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Inside the hovercraft were many other people. There were a couple of teenagers who wore orange t-shirts with 'Camp Half-Blood' written on them and necklaces with beads. There was another group who wore mostly black and had tattoos. Gale stood at the end of the hovercraft talking to people who had blue tattoos on their forehead.

"Gale what's going on?" I asked. His grey eyes found mine and he beckoned me towards him. I eyed him carefully as he introduced the people with blue tattoos to me.

"Katniss, this is Zoey Redbird." He pointed towards a pretty girl who had olive skin, hazel eyes and was covered with lace-like dark blue tattoos.

"Merry meet Katniss." She smiled warmly at me. Behind her we a few other people who had either red tattoos on their forehead or had a crescent moon. I nodded back at her and walked towards Peeta, who was talking to the people with orange t-shirts and bead necklaces.

There was a blonde girl with grey eyes, like mine, a boy with black hair and sea green eyes which reminded me of Finnick's eyes, a girl who had black hair and electric blue eyes. She wore a silver circlet around her head and a boy with curl brown hair and a wispy goatee. Turns out their names were Annabeth, Percy, Thalia and Grover respectively. I smiled at each of them and introduced me and Peeta.

"What the hell?!" A girl with short blonde hair and pale blue eyes – I think her name is Tris - screamed. She had a tattoo of 3 crows on her collar bone and a circle with a flame inside it on her shoulder. She was staring at two boys and two girls who had appeared out of no where in our hovercraft. One of the girls had caramel colored hair with blue streaks and the other girl had had black hair that reached her jaw. Both the boys had dark skin.

A flash of lights shut everyone up. A gorgeous lady with dark hair and storming grey appeared.

"Mom!" Annabeth cried. Everyone, other than the orange t-shirt people looked at her.

The woman smiled at her and then turned to us. "Hello children. You have been summoned here to read about your respective groups."

"We're on this flying ship to _read_? Why?" A man with a hook nose, dark hair and dark blue asks. His name is four, I think.

"What's wrong with reading?" The woman's eyes flashed with anger.

"I don't know. It seems like an erudite thing to do."

Erudite? I looked at Peeta. He seemed as confused as I was. So was everyone other than the black clothed people in the room.

The woman smiled. "The books will help you determine the answers to all your respective wars. The answers are related."

"If you know the answers why don't you just tell us? Help us stop Neferet!" A girl with short blonde hair and red flower tattoos on her forehead shouted. "And who are you anyway?"

The woman smiled. "I am Athena, the greek goddess of wisdom and war Stevie rae johnson, and there is much you all need to know." She waved her hand and five books appeared in the center of the room. "The books are called _Divergent_, _The Hunger Games, Marked, Percy Jackson and the lightning thief_" She smiled at Percy while he blushed. She cleared her throat and continued "and _The Red Pyramid._ The books here revolve around divergent Tris Prior, victor Katniss Everdeen, High Priestess Zoey Redbird, demigod Percy Jackson and eyes of Horus and Isis Carter and Sadie Kane. Good luck children. I hope you all find your required answers." She turned towards Zoey's group and said "Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again." With a last smile at us she vanished in a flash of light.

"What book should we read first?" The girl, Stevie rae, asked.

"Let's read divergent first. It looks interesting." Thalia said.

Tris paled but nods, the story is about her after all. "I'll read." She tells Thalia, who hands her the books. She sits on the floor and we all gather around in a circle around her. She takes a deep breath. "Chapter 1.."


	2. Chapter 1 - Divergent

**ANNABETH P.O.V**

Tris took a deep breath and read "Chapter 1.."

"We know that Tris!" A dark skinned girl shouted.

"Shut up Christina!"

She straightened and started reading.

**There is one mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.**

"Why are you talking about a mirror? Isn't this about a divergent? Whatever _that_ is.." Carter asked.

"Shut up Carter and let the poor girl read!" Saying that, Sadie smacked him in the head. She gave Tris a thumbs up and nodded.

**Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.**

"Don't you get to look in the mirror otherwise?" I asked.

"Now I do." She replied.

"Oh. Why?"

"I'm sure it'll be given in the story."

I nodded and motioned her to continue reading.

**I sit on the stool and my mother stands behind me with the scissors, trimming. The strands fall on the floor in a dull blond ring.**

**When she finishes, she pulls my hair away from my face and twists it into a knot. I note how calm she looks and how focused she is. She is well practiced in the art of losing herself. I can't say the same for myself.**

"Not true Tris. When you stare are To.. Four, you're certainly lost." A boy with brown hair, I'm pretty sure his name is Uriah remarks.

"I could say the same with you and your reflection Uriah." Tris shoots back.

Everyone laughs at exchange as Katniss nods at Tris to continue.

**I sneak a look at my reflection when she isn't paying attention – not out of vanity but out of curiosity.**

"Oooh naughty naughty Tris."

"Uriah, do you want to know how toilet water tastes like?"

"Aw come on Tris. You know you can never take me."

Percy suddenly douses Uriah in toilet whatever and looks away whistling the theme song to my little pony. I lean towards him and whisper "My little pony? Seriously?"

He looks at me, offended. "It's important ok? It teaches us about friendship!"

I stifle a laugh and say "Right, my little pony. It's extremely important."

**A lot can happen to a person's appearance in three months. In my reflection, I see a narrow face, wide, round eyes, and a long, thin nose – I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen. **

We stare at her. She looks like anything but a little girl. She shrugs and continues reading.

**The other factions celebrate birthdays, but we don't. It would be self-indulgent.**

Cue more staring and jaws open.

"**There." She says when she pins the knot in place. Her eyes catch mine in the mirror. It is too late to look away, but instead of scolding me, she smiles at our reflection. I frown a little. Why doesn't she reprimand me for staring at myself?**

"Why are you complaining?" Christina asks.

Tris shrugs and says "It's a bit shocking in abnegation."

"What's _abnegation_?" I ask unable to stop myself.

She looks at me and says "I'm sure It'll be explained in the book."

"Oh."

"**So today is the day."**

"What day?" Thalia asks.

Tris glares at her and points at her book.

"Ok! Ok! Jeesh!"

"**Yes." I reply.**

"**Are you nervous?"**

**I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the choosing ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.**

"Must be an easy choice then." Walt asks.

"It's not as easy as you think." Four replies.

"Oh."

"**No. The tests don't have to change our choices."**

"**Right." She smiles. "Let's go eat breakfast."**

"**Thank you. For cutting my hair."**

**She kisses my cheek and slides the panel over the mirror. I think my mother is beautiful, in a different world. Her body is thin beneath the gray robe. She has high cheek bones and long lashes, when she lets her hair down at night , it hangs in waves over her shoulders. **

Tris' voice breaks as she reads about her mother. Four goes over to her and squeezes her shoulder. She smiles at him and turns back to the book.

**But she must hide that beauty in Abnegation.**

There it was. Abnegation. I decide it must be one of the five factions that values selflessness.

**We walk together to the kitchen. On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the news paper, and my mother hums as she clears the table – it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them.**

"Why would you want to leave them? They seem like a great family." Thalia remarks, her voice wistful.

"You have no idea.." Tris says.

**The bus stinks of exhaust. Every time it hits a patch of uneven pavement, it jostles me from side to side, even though I'm gripping the seat to keep myself still.**

**My older brother, Caleb, stands in the aisle holding a railing above his head to keep himself steady. We don't look alike.**

"No. You most certainly don't."

**He has my father's dark hair and my mother's green eyes and dimpled cheeks. When he was younger, that collection of features looked strange. But now it suits him. If he wasn't Abnegation, I'm sure the girls at school would stare at him.**

**He also inherited my mother's talent of selflessness. He gave his seat to a surly candor man without a second thought.**

**The candor man wears a black suit with a white tie – Candor standard uniform. Their faction values honesty and sees truth as black and white, so that is what they wear. **

**The gaps between the building narrow and the roads are smoother as we near the heart of the city. The building that was once called the sear tower -**

"You're in Chicago!" I cried out.

"What?" The divergent gang all look at me.

"Yes you're in Chicago! It's a landmark there!"

"But it's destroyed now. After the war that took place."

"What war?"

"You mean after a war your city got divided into five factions?" Katniss asks suddenly.

"Yes." Christina confirms.

"Our nation, Panem, got divided into thirteen districts which centered a capitol after a war took place."

"Could it be the same war?" I asked. "Panem and Chicago are in the same continent after all."

"Maybe.."

**We call the hub – emerges from the fog, a black pillar in the skyline. The bus passes under the elevated tracks. I have never been on a train, though they never stop running and there are tracks everywhere. Only the dauntless ride them.**

The divergent gang all cheer.

**Five years ago volunteer construction workers from Abnegation repaved some of the roads. They started in the middle of the city and worked their way outward until they ran out of materials. The roads where I live are still cracked and patchy, and it's not safe to drive on them. We don't have a car anyway.**

"Yeah, cars are a luxury we could never afford." Gale said.

"It's not because of that, cars are meant for our own purposes, hence owning a car is selfish." Tris replied.

"Ok wow. Do they never think about themselves?" Percy asked.

"Of course not. Abnegation values selflessness. Why would they think about themselves?"

"Right.."

**Caleb's expression is placid as the bus sways and jolts on the road. The gray robe falls from his arm and he clutches the pole for balance. I can tell by the constant shift in his eyes that he is watching people around us – striving to see only them and to forget himself.**

"Jeez.. That's harsh."

**Candor values honesty, but our faction, Abnegation, values selflessness.**

"I KNEW IT! HA!" I screamed as I ran around the room.

Everybody stared at me.

"Right. Um, I'm just going to sit there and not look at any of you." I sat in the corner of the room while they kept staring. I put my head down "This is awkward."

**The bus stops in front of the school and I get up, scooting past the candor man. I grab Caleb's arm as I stumble over the man's shoes. My slacks are too long and I've never been that graceful.**

"Under statement of the century Tris."

**The Upper-levels building is the oldest of the three schools in the city: lower levels, mid-levels and upper levels. Like all other buildings around it, it is made of glass and steel.**

"I always thought buildings were made of cement."

"What's cement?" Peeta asked.

"Um just this hard sort of substance that makes buildings." Sadie replied.

"Ok."

**In front of it is a large metal sculpture that the dauntless climb after school, daring each other to go higher and higher.**

"That's reckless. Someone could get hurt!" Zia comments.

"Yeah it's reckless, but it's fun!"

**Last year I watched one of them fall and break her leg. **

"See? Why would you continue after that?"

"It's fun!"

**I was the one who ran to get the nurse.**

"Good girl." Zia says.

Tris raises her eyebrow at her and continues reading.

"**Aptitude tests today." I say. Caleb is not quite a year older than I am, so we are in the same year at school.**

**He nods as we pass through the front doors. My muscles tighten the second we walk in. the atmosphere feels hungry, like every sixteen is trying to devour as much as he can of this last day.**

"That's accurate." Christina says.

**It is likely that we will not walk these halls again after the choosing ceremony – once we choose, our new factions will be responsible for finishing our education.**

**Our classes are cut in half today, so we will attend all of them before the aptitude tests, which takes place after lunch.**

"Well that sucks."

"Shut up Percy, school is fun."

"Only to you wise girl."

"Seaweed brain."

We stare at each other for a few seconds when Sadie's voice chimes in "You two are totally dating."

We blush and motion Tris to continue.

**My heart rate is already elevated.**

"**You aren't at all worried about what they'll tell you?" I ask Caleb.**

**We pause at the split in the hallway where he will go one way. Toward Advanced Math, and I will go the other, toward Faction History.**

"I hated that class. It was always the same thing!"

**He raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you?"**

**I could tell him I've been worried for weeks about what the aptitude test will tell me – Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity or Dauntless?**

"So you were extremely worried." Grover says.

**Instead I smile and say "Not really."**

"Ha! You are so not cut out for Candor!" Christina yells at Tris.

"Yeah my aptitude test ruled that out."

"Do we get to read about your aptitude test?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Cool."

**He smiles back. "Well…have a good day."**

**I walk towards Faction History, chewing my lower lip. He never answered my question.**

"He probably was worried then." I say.

**The hallways are cramped, thought the light coming from the windows creates the illusion of space; they are one the only places where factions mix, at our age. Today the crowd has a new kind of energy, a last day mania.**

A few chuckles were heard throughout the room.

**A girl with long curly hair shouts "Hey!" next to my ear, waving at a distant friend. A jacket sleeve smacks me on the cheek. Then an Erudite boy in a blue sweater shoves me. I lose my balance and fall hard on the ground.**

Four growls. Tris looks like she's about to burst out laughing any moment.

"**Out of my way, stiff." He snaps, and continues down the hallway.**

Siff? The question is whispered all around the room.

**My cheeks warm. I get up and dust myself off. A few people stopped when I fell, but none of them offered to help me. Their eyes follow me to the edge of the hallway. This sort of thing has been happening in my faction for months now - the Erudite have been releasing antagonistic reports about Abnegation, and it has begun to affect the way we relate in school. The gray clothes, the plain hairstyle, and the unassuming demeanor of my faction are supposed to make it easier for me to forget myself, and easier for everyone else to forget me too. But now they make me a target.**

Four growled again and Tris clutched his hand. "It's fine, worse things have happened." She whispers before turning back to the book.

**I pause by a window in the E wing and wait for the dauntless to arrive. I do this every morning. At exactly 7:25, the dauntless prove their bravery by jumping off a moving train.**

"What? That's not safe! Somebody could seriously get injured!" Zia explodes.

**My father calls the Dauntless "hellions".**

"Fitting description too."

**They are pierced, tattooed, and black-clothed.**

Everyone looks at the divergent gang. "You guys are dauntless aren't you?" I ask. They all nod.

"And I suppose you jump off moving trains too." Zia snaps.

"Not only that, we jump _on _moving trains too." Uriah grins at Zia.

Zia turns and grumbles something about reckless losers and nods at Tris.

**Their primary purpose is to guard the fence that surrounds the city. From what, I don't know.**

"Oh I don't know, maybe the capitol?" Katniss remarks sarcastically.

"Are they really that bad?" Carter asks.

"You have no idea."

"We probably will though, that book over there, _The Hunger Games_, it's about your world right?"

Katniss nods, her jaw clenched.

**They should perplex me. I should wonder courage – which is the virtue they most value – has to do with a metal ring through your nostril.**

Everyone laughs.

**Instead my eyes cling to them wherever they go.**

"Maybe it's the universe trying to tell you that you're meant to be a Dauntless!" Stevie Rae tells her with her thick okie drawl.

Tris chuckles "Maybe."

**The train whistle blares, the sound resonating on my chest. The light fixed to the front of the train clicks on and off as the train hurtles past the school, squealing on iron rails. And as the last few cars pass, a mass exodus of young men and young women in dark clothing hurl themselves from the moving clothes. Some dropping and rolling, others stumbling a few steps before regaining their balance. One of the boys wrap his arm around a girl's shoulders, laughing.**

"That was me and Marlene." Uriah says softly. His voice wistful and sad.

**Watching them is a foolish practice.**

"Ha! Stalker!"

**I turn away from the window and press through the crowd to the Faction History classroom.**

"Done. Do you want to read the next chapter or do we move on to another book." Tris asks.

"Let's read it in cycle. Let's the Hunger Games now."

"Okay I'll read." Katniss speaks up and takes the books. "Part 1, the tributes.."


	3. Chapter 1 - The Hunger Games

**ZOEY P.O.V**

Katniss takes a deep breath and starts reading. "Part 1 – the tributes.."

**When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.**

"Who were you sleeping with Katniss?" Uriah waggles his eyebrows at her.

She rolls her eyes and continues.

**My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.**

"What's the reaping?" Stark asks. His bow and quiver slung over his shoulder. He looks like a very professional, and a very _hot_ vampyre archer.

Katniss looks at him and says "It'll be explained in the book.

**I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother's body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim's face is as fresh a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too.** **Or so they tell me.**

"She was. My father was in love with her, but instead married that witch of a mother." Peeta says.

Everyone looks at him. Shocked. Nobody speaks about their mother that way. Peeta shrugs and motions Katniss to continue reading.

**Sitting at Prim's knees, guarding her, is the world's ugliest cat. Mashed-in nose, half of one ear missing, eyes the color of rotting squash.**

"Ew…" was heard throughout the room.

**Prim named him buttercup, insisting that his muddy yellow cost matched the bright flower.**

"Ew. How can she stand that thing?" Erin asked?

"She loved that cat. And, I can't believe I'm saying this, but it served her well."

"I wonder how.."

**He hates me. **

"Why? You never told why Katniss."

"It's there in the book. Shut up Gale."

**Or at least distrusts me. Even though it was years ago, I think he still remembers how I tried to drown him in a bucket when Prim brought him home.**

"Oh."

**Scrawny kitten, belly swollen with worms, crawling with flees.**

"EW!." The twins, Shaunee and Erin, shrieked. Shaunee and Erin weren't biological twins, Shaunee was a coffee skinned girl from Connecticut and Erin was a pretty blonde girl from Oklahoma. But once you knew them for about five minutes, you'll realizes why everyone call them twins. I swear, they're so freakishly alike, that they must have been separated at birth or something.

**The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed.**

"What does that mean?" Percy asks.

Katniss glares at him and shrinks back.

**But Prim begged so hard, cried even, I had to let him stay. It turned out okay. My mom got rid of the vermin and he's a born mouser. Even catches the occasional rat.**

"Why do you people need mice and rats?" Christina asks.

"To eat them." Katniss replies.

"EW! Why would you want to ear _rats_?"

"Well, we can't starve now can we?"

That shut Christina up.

**Sometimes, when I clean a kill, I feed buttercup the entrails. He has stopped hissing at me. **

**Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love.**

"Ha!"

**I slide my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers, a shirt, tuck my long dark braid into a cap, and grab my forage bag. On the table, under a wooden bowl to protect it from hungry cats and rats alike,**

Everyone cracks up.

**sits a perfect little goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves. **

"Yum!"

**Prim's gift to me on the reaping day. I put the cheese carefully in my pocket as I slip outside.**

"There is again. _Reaping_. What is it? It's driving me nuts not knowing!" Annabeth asks.

Katniss sighs and says "The hunger games were an entertainment show for the capitol. There are 12 districts" Peeta coughs and looks at her. She ignores him and continues explaining "in the nation of Panem, with the capitol as the center. After a certain rebellion 75 or76 years ago, the capitol made these hunger games in which two tributes, between the ages of 12 and 18 in each district, one male and one female, are reaped to be thrown into the arena to fight to the death. The last one alive is the victor and gets a fancy house in the victor's village and a lifetime supply of food."

Everyone stares at her in a horrified silence. A _fight to the death_? It makes voldemort seem like an angel!(Yes, I read the harry potter series, I totally have a crush on Draco Malfoy. Hee hee.)

Katniss just picks up her book again and continues reading.

**Our part of District 12, nicknamed the seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour. Men and women with hunched shoulders, swollen knuckles, many who have stopped trying to scrub the coal dust out of her broken nails, the lines of their wrinkled faces.**

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose, at first I thought she was disgusted by the way the people of the seam were described, but then I saw the pity in her eyes. I decided to drop the matter.

**But today the black cinder streets are empty. Shutters on the squat gray houses are closed. The reaping isn't until two. May as well sleep in. If you can.**

**Our house is almost at the edge of the seam. I only have to pass a few gates to reach to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high-chain link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hors a day as a deterrent to the predators that live in the woods – packs of wild dogs, lone cougars, bears – that used to threaten our streets. But since we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it usually safe to touch. Even so, I always take a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live.**

"That's smart." Annabeth said, nodding in approval. They said they were demi-gods. I found it logical. If Nyx exists, why not the other gods?

**Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, I flatten on my belly and slide under the two-foot stretch that's been loose for years. There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this is one is so close to home I almost always enter the woods here.**

"It's safer." Zia remarks. Jeesh, that girl has some serious safety issues.

**As soon as I'm in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log. Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping flesh-eaters out of District 12. Inside the woods they roam freely, and there are added concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow. But there's also food if you know how to find.**

"There's decent food in nearly every forest. Researchs prove that." Damien commented.

"Damien I have had it up till here-" Shaunee started.

"With your Wikipedia shit." And Erin both chorused ''shut up''s and turned to Katniss.

**My father knew and he taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him.**

Katniss' voice broke a bit, she took a deep breath, regained her composure and continued.

**Even though trespassing in the woods is illegal and poaching carries the severest of penalties, more people would risk it if they had weapons. But most are not bold enough to venture out with just a knife. My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods, carefully wrapped in waterproof covers.**

"Your father made bows?" Sadie asked.

Katniss nods.

"cool.."

**My father could have made good money selling them, but if the officials found out he would have been publicly executed for inciting rebellion.**

"Oh my god.."

**Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us who hunt because they're as hungry for fresh meat as anybody is. In fact, they're among our best customers.**

"Do you know how incredibly lucky you are? If it was district 11, you would have been dead 5 years ago!"

"I know Haymitch, but why waste a perfectly good opportunity of getting food?"

Haymitch shut up and stared at the book.

**But the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed.**

"Damn right it wouldn't."

**In the autumn, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples.**

"I am awe-struck by their bravery!" Uriah snorts.

Thalia gets pissed and throws a shoe at him. He smiled and says "Fiesty. I like my girls feisty."

Thalia rolls her eyes and mutters "Boys." Like it's the most horrible word ever.

**But always in site of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. "District 12. Where you can starve to death in safety." I mutter. Then I glance around quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you.**

"how?"

"Cameras and stuff."

**When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol. Eventually I understood this would us into trouble. So I learned to hold my tongue and turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts. Do my work quietly in school. Make only polite small talk in the public market.**

"I swear, you're like an expert!" peeta exclaims.

Katniss smiles smugly and returns to the book.

**Discuss little more than trades in the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money.**

"You have a black market?"

"Yeah."

**Even at home, where I am less pleasant I avoid discussing tricky topics. Like the reaping, or food shortages, or the Hunger Games. Prim might begin repeating my words, and then where would we be?**

**In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale.**

Gale looks at Katniss and blushes. Katniss looks at gale and frowns. Peeta looks at both of them and smiles at Katniss. Katniss rolls her eyes and turns back to the book.

**I can feel the muscles in my face relaxing, my pace quickening as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thickset of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes. The sight of him waiting there brings on a smile. Gale says I never smile except in the woods.**

"You never even smile anymore.."

**Hey, Catnip," says Gale. My real name is Katniss, but when I first told him, I barely whispered it. So he thought I'd said Catnip. Then when this crazy lynx started following me around the woods looking for handouts, it became his official nickname for me. I finally had to kill it because he was scaring off game. I almost regretted it because he wasn't bad company.**

*GASP* "Appalling Katniss! Killing of a creature! How could you?" Uriah wailed.

"It was scaring off all the game! Plus, I got a decent price for his pelt!"

**But I got a decent price for his pelt**.

"No need to repeat yourself. I got the point.:

"Look what I shot." Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh.

**It's real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from out grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crest tom my nose, inhaling the fragments that make my mouth flood with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions.**

**"Mm, still warm," I say. He must have been at the bakery at the crack of dawn to trade for it. "What did it cost you?"**

**"Just a squirrel. Think the old man was feeling sentimental this morning," says Gale. "Even wished me luck."**

"Yeah my dad was nice. When his witch of a wife wasn't around." Peeta remarks.

Everyone looks at him.

"What? Better calling her a witch than a bitch."

We turn to Katniss.

**"Well, we all feel a little closer today, don't we?" I say, not even bothering to roll my eyes. "Prim left us cheese." I pull it out.**

**His expression brightens at the treat. "Thank you, Prim. We'll have a real feast."**

"Indeed."

**Suddenly he fall into a Capitol accent as he mimics Effie Trinket, the maniacally upbeat woman who arrives once a year to read out the name at the reaping. "I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!" He plucks a few blackberries from the bushes around us. "And may the odds-" He tossed a berry in a high arc towards me.**

"BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR!" Peeta, Haymitch and Gale all shout. Katniss rolls her eyes for the billionth time and continues reading.

**I catch it in my mouth and break the delicate skin with my teeth. The sweet tartness explodes across my tongue.**

**"-be _ever _in your favor!" I finish with equal verve. We have to joke about it because the alternate is to be scared out of your wits.**

"Yeah it's a better alternative alright." Four mutters.

**Besides, the Capitol accent is so affected, almost anything sounds funny in it.**

**I watch as Gale pulls out his knife and slices the bread. He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin; we even have the same grey eyes. But we're not related, at least not closely. Most families who work the mines resemble one another this way.**

**That's why my mother and Prim, with their light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place. They are. My mother's parents were part of the small merchant class that caters officials, Peacekeepers and the occasional Seam customer.**

"oh. That's depressing."

**They ran an apothecary shop in the nice part of District 12. Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers. My father got to know my mother because on his hunts he would sometimes collect medicinal herbs and sell them to her shop to be brewed into remedies. She must have really loved him.**

"You have no idea."

Katniss frowned a little but continued reading.

**To leave her home for the Seam. I try to remember that when all I can see is the woman who sat by, black and unreachable, while her children turned to skin and bones. I try to forgive her for my father's sake. But to be honest, I'm not the forgiving type.**

"People do that when they're in love. It's not really their fault. My god you should have seen stark when-" Stark clamped a mouth over Stevie rae's mouth and looked at Katniss, who stifled a laugh and continued reading.

**Gale spreads the bread slices with the soft goat's cheese, carefully placing a basil leaf on each while I strip the bushes of their berries. We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible, but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths.**

"Quite a dramatic person aren't you?" Tris laughs.

"Well, you are just like me." They both look at each other and laugh for a while, leaving everyone confused. I lean onto Stark and whispered "What just happened."

**Everything would be perfect if this really was a holiday, if all the day off meant was roaming the mountains with Gale, hunting for tonight's supper. But instead we have to be standing in the square at two o'clock waiting for the names to be called out.**

Depressing silence. Is this what our future will be like? A society either divided into five factions based upon the most valued virtues or an entire nation divided into districts with an oppressing government?

**"We could do it you know," Gale says quietly.**

**"What?" I ask.**

**"Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it," says Gale**

"What about your family?"

**I don't know how to respond. The idea is so preposterous.**

**"If we didn't have so many kids," he adds quickly.**

Grover looks at Gale and Katniss and asks "Aren't you two a bit young?"

Gale blushes and Katniss quickly continues reading. The rest of us crack up.

**They're not our kids, of course. But they might as well be. Gale's two little brothers and a sister. Prim. And you may as well throw in our mothers, too, because how would they live without us? Who would fill those mouths that are always asking for more? With both of us hunting daily, there is still nights when game has to be swapped for lard or shoelaces or wool, still nights when we go to bed with our stomachs growling.**

"Oh. I'm sorry."

**"I never want to have kids," I say.**

**"I might. If I didn't live here." Say Gale.**

**"But you do." I say, irritated.**

**"Forget it." He snaps back.**

Yikes.

**The conversation feels all wrong. Leave? How could I leave Prim, who is the only person in the world I'm certain I love? And Gale is so devoted to his family. We can't leave, so why bother talking about it? And even if we did . . . even if we did . . . where did this stuff about having kids come from?**

Everybody cracks up again.

**There's never been anything romantic between Gale and me.**

People are rolling on the floor laughing looking at Gale's expression. He looks like a dying walrus!

**When we met, I was a skinny twelve-year-old, and although he was only two years older, he already looked like a man. It took a long time for us to even become friends, to haggling over each trade and begin helping each other out.**

"Oh aren't you a social bee." I hear Christina muttering.

**Besides, if he wanted kids, Gale won't have any trouble finding a wife. He's good-looking,**

"Why thank you Catnip."

**He's strong**

"you flatter me too much." He grins.

**enough to handle the work in the mines and he can hunt.**

"Oh stop it you."

**You can tell by the way the girls whisper about him when he walks by in school, that they want him. It makes me jealous,**

Peeta raised an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything.

**but not for the reason that you would think. Good hunting partners are hard to find.**

Everyone cracks up looking at Gale's expression again.

**"What do you want to do?" I ask. We can hunt, fish or gather.**

**"Let's fish at the lake. We can leave our poles and gather in the woods. Get something nice for tonight," he says.**

**Tonight. After the reaping, everyone is supposed to celebrate. And a lot of people do, out of relief that their children have been spared. But at least two families will pull down their shutters, lock their door, and try to figure out how they will survive the painful weeks to come.**

Depressing.

**We do well. The predators ignore us on a day when easier, tastier prey abounds. By late mourning, we have a dozen fish, a bag of greens and, best of all, a large quantity of strawberries. I found the patch a few years ago, but Gale had the idea to string mesh nets around it to keep out the animals.**

"Smart of you Gale." Annabeth remarks.

"Thanks."

**On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market the operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal. When they came up with a mire efficient system that transported the coal directly from the mines to the trains, the Hob gradually took over the space. Most businesses are closed by this time on the reaping day, but the black market's still fairly busy. We easily trade six of the fish for good bread, the other two for salt.**

"You could have kept a few fish for yourself. They're yummy."

**Greasy Sae, the bony woman who sells bowels of hot soup from a large kettle, takes half the greens off our hands in exchange for a couple of chunks of paraffin. We might do a tad better elsewhere, but we make an effort to keep on good terms with Greasy Sae. She's the only one who can consistently be counted on to buy wild dog. We don't hunt them on purpose, but if you're attacked and you take out a dog or two, well, meat is meat. "Once it's in the soup, i'll call it beef,"**

"EW!" Aphrodite shrieks.

Katniss glares at her and says "Well, it's either that or starving."

**Greasy Sae says with a wink. No one in the Seam would turn up their nose at a good leg of wild dog, but the Peacekeepers who come to the Hob can afford to be a little choosier.**

**When we finish our business at the market, we go to the back door of the mayor's house to sell half the strawberries, knowing he has a particular fondness for them and can afford our price. The mayor's daughter, Madge, opens the door. She's in my year at school. Being the mayors daughter, you'd expect her to be a snob, but she's alright. She just keeps to herself. Like me. Since neither of us really has a group of friends, we seem to end up together a lot at school. Eating lunch, sitting next to each other at assemblies, partnering for sports activities. We rarely talk, which suits us both just fine.**

"Of course it would. Because you're such a social bee." Christina laughs.

**Today he drab school outfit has been replace by an expensive white dress, and her blonde hair is done up with a pink ribbon. Reaping clothes.**

**"Pretty dress," says Gale**

**Madge shoots him a look, trying to see if it was a genuine compliment or if he was being ironic. It _is _a pretty dress, but she would never be wearing it ordinarily. She pressed her lips together and then smiles. "Well, if I do end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don't I?"**

"What?"

**Now it's Gale's turn to be confused. Does she mean it Or is she messing with him? I'm guessing the second.**

"Probably."

**"You wouldn't go to the Capitol," says Gale coolly. His eyes land on a small circular pin that adorns her dress. Real gold. Beautifully crafted. I could keep a family in bread for months. "What can you have? Five entries? I had six when I was just twelve years old."**

**"That's not her fault," I say**

**"No it's no one's fault. Just the way it is," says Gale.**

**Madge's face has become closed off. She puts the money for the berries in my hand. "Good luck, Katniss."**

**"You, too," I say, and the door closes.**

"Gale, you really shouldn't do that. It's not nice." Stevie Rae shakes her head at Gale, her frizzy girls bobbing with her head.

"Spare us your bumpkin shit, mary poppins." Aphrodite snaps as she nestles he head on Darius' shoulder. He was so quiet I didn't even notice him. I take stark's hand just to make sure he didn't forget me, the way I forgot Darius.

**We walk towards the Seam in silence. I don't like that Gale took a dig at Madge, but he's right, of course.**

"Why?"

**The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. And so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, when your name goes into the pool seven times. That's true for every citizen in all twelve districts in the entire country of Panem.**

"I still don't get it."

**But here's the catch. Say you were poor and starving, as we were. You can opt to add your name more times in exchange for tesserae. Each tessera is worth a meagre year's supply of grain and oil for one person. You may do this for each of your family members as well. So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim and my mother. In fact, every year I have needed to do this. And the entries are cumulative. So now at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty times.**

"Oh."

**Gale, who is eighteen and has been helping or single-handedly feeding a family of five for seven years, will have his name in forty-two times.**

"Oh my god."

**You can see why someone like Madge, who has never been at risk of needing a tessera, can set him. The chance of her name being drawn is very slim compared to those of us who live in the Seam. Not impossible but slim. And even though the rules were set up by the Capitol, not the districts, certainly not Madge's family, it's hard not to resent those who don't have to sign up for tesserae.**

There were sympathetic nods all around the room.

**Gale knows his anger at Madge is misdirected. On other days, deep in the woods, I've listened to him rant on about how the tesserae are just another tool to cause miser in our district. A way to plant hatred between the starving workers in the Seam and those who can generally count on supper; and thereby ensure we will never trust one another. "It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves," he might say if there were no ears to hear but mine. If it wasn't reaping day. If a girl with a gold pin and no tesserae had not made what I'm sure she though was a harmless comment.**

Thalia frowns a bit but doesn't say anything. Carter takes zia'a hand and holds it tightly.

Wow. And we thought we had it bad.

**As we walk, I glance over at Gales face, still smouldering underneath his stony expression. His rages seem pointless to me, although I never say so. It's not that I don't agree with him. I do. But what good is yelling about the Capitol in the middle of the woods? It doesn't change anything. It doesn't make things fair. It doesn't fill our stomachs. In fact, it scares off the nearby game. I let him yell, though. Better he does it in the woods than in the district.**

"That's smart. You could be an Erudite or a Dauntless, Katniss." Tris says.

"Or a Gryfindor or a Ravenclaw." I say. I seriously heart harry potter.

**Gale and I divide our spoils, leaving two fish, a couple of loaves of good bread, greens, a few handfuls of strawberries, salt, paraffin and a bit of money for each of us.**

**"See you in the square," I say**

**"Wear something pretty," he say flatly.**

"Really Gale? Really?" The twins ask.

"Um. Sorry?"

**At home, I find my mother and sister are ready to go. My mother wears a fine dress from her apothecary days. Prim is in my first reaping outfit, a skirt and a ruffled blouse. It's a bit big on her, but my mother has made it stay with pins. Even so, she's having trouble keeping the blouse tucked in at the back.**

Everyone smiles at that. Prim was seriously adorable. But she wasn't here. I frown at that and decide to ask Katniss later.

**A tub of warm water waits for me. I scrub off the dirt and sweat from the woods and even wash my hair. To my surprise, my mother has laid out one of her own lovely dresses for me. A soft blue thing with matching shoes.**

"Pretty!"

**"Are you sure?" I ask. Im trying to get past rejecting offers of help from her. For a while, I was so angry, I wouldn't allow her to do anything for me. And this is something special. Her clothes from her past are very precious to her.**

"It's her indirect way of trying to make peace with you."

**"Of course. Let's put your hair up, too," she says. I let her towel-dry it and braid it up on my head. I can hardly recognize myself in the cracked mirror that leans against the wall.**

**"You look beautiful," says Prim in a hushed voice**

**"And nothing like myself," I say. I hug her, because I know these next few hours will be terrible for her. Her first reaping. She's about as safe as you can get, since she only entered once. I wouldn't let her take out any tesserae. But she's worried about me. That the unthinkable might happen.**

**I protect Prim in every way I can, but I'm powerless against the reaping. The anguish I always feel when she's in pain wells up in my chest and threatens to register on my face.**

"You really love your sister don't you?" Carter asks.

Katniss nods. Tears in her gray eyes.

**I noticed her blouse has pulled out of her skirt in the back again and force myself to stay calm. "Tuck your tail in, little duck," I say, smoothing the blouse back in place.**

**Prim giggles and gives me a small "Quack".**

**"Quack yourself," I say with a light laugh. The kind only Prim can draw out of me. Come on, let's eat," I say and plant a quick kiss on the top of her head.**

Everyone laughs at the exchange.

**The fish and greens are already cooking an a stew, but that will be for supper. We decide to save the strawberries and bakery bread for this evening's meal, to make it special, we say. Instead we drink mild from Prim's goat Lady,**

"Lady?"

**and eat the rough bread made from the tesserae grain, although no one has much appetite anyway.**

**At one o'clock, we head for the square. Attendance is mandatory unless you are on death's door. This evening the officials will come around and check to see if this is the case. If not, you'll be imprisoned.**

Harsh.

**It's too bad, really that they hold the reaping in the square-one of the few places in District 12 that can be pleasant. The square's surrounded by shops, and on public market days, especially if there's good weather. It had a holiday feel to is. But today, despite the bright banners hanging on the buildings, there's an air of grimness. The camera crews, percher like buzzards on rooftops, only add to the effect.**

**People file in silently and sign in. The reaping is a good opportunity for the Capitol to keep tabs on the population as well. Twelve- to eighteen-year-olds are herded into roped areas marked off by ages, the oldest in the front, the young ones, like Prim, towards the back. Family members line up around the perimeter, holding tightly to one another's hands. But there are others, too, who have no one they love at stake or who no longer care, who slip among the crowd, taking best on the two kids whose names will be drawn.**

"Well, that's a _lovely_ way of showing support." Percy says sarcastically, with nods of agreement from Walt, Four and Carter.

**Odds are given on their ages, whether they're Seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep. Most refuse dealing with the racketeers but carefully, carefully. These people tend to be the informers and who hasn't broken the law? I could be shot on a daily basis for hunting, but the appetites of those in charge protect me. Not everyone can claim the same.**

"You're seriously optimistic aren't you?"

Katniss frowns at me and turns back to the books. Stevie rae whispers to me "Like you're any better."

**Anyway, Gale and I agreed that if we had to choose between dying of hunger and a bullet in the head, the bullet would be much quicker.**

"What would happen to your families then?"

**The space gets tighter and tighter, more claustrophobic, as people arrive. The square's quite large, but not enough to hold District 12's population of eight thousand. Latecomers are directed to the adjacent streets, where they can watch the event on the screens as it's televised live by the state.**

**I find myself standing in a clump of sixteens from the Seam. We all exchange terse nods, then focus our attention on the temporary stage that is set up before the Justice Building. It holds three chairs, a podium and two large glass balls, one for the boys and one for the girls. I stare at the paper slips in the girls' ball. Twenty of them have Katniss Everdeen written on them in careful handwriting.**

**Two of the chairs fill with Madge's father, Mayor Undersee, who's a tall, balding man, and Effie Trinket, District 12's escort, fresh from the Capitol with her scary white grin, pinkish hair and spring green suit.**

"That lady has no sense of fashion."

They murmur to each other and the look with concern at the empty seat.

**Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It's the same story every year. He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal was for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to it's citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gives us the Hunger Games.**

"That's terrible! They're misusing their power for shit like this!" Annabeth explodes. And she has good reason to, jeesh! They make neferet seem normal!

"I swear! They're worse than Jeanine!" Uriah says.

"They might be minions of kronos." Percy says.

"Or worse, Gaia." A voice comes from behind. There are eight people standing there. Standing in the front are… percy and Annabeth? I look at percy and Annabeth and they're sitting over there. Holy crap! They have duplicates! Apparently everybody is thinking the same thing because they keep looking at Percy and Annabeth and then their duplicates. Percy no.2 steps forward and says "We're from the future. This is the Rachel's next great prophecy, the prophecy of the seven." The eight people introduce themselves as Percy no.2, Annabeth no.2, Jason, Piper(she was seriously pretty), Leo, Hazel, Frank and Nico.

Nico takes a seat beside Thalia who explains to them what's going on. Once everybody caught up, Thalia nods at Katniss.

**The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland.**

"That's horrible!" Zia wails.

**Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.**

**Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch-this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen."**

**To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home,**

Haymitch and Peeta snort while Katniss just looks incredibly sad. Gale looks uber – uncomfortable.

**and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the of us battle starvation.**

"It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks," intones the mayor.

**Then he reads the list of past District 12 victors. In the seventy-four years, we have had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, a paunchy, middle-aged man, what at this moment appears hollering something unintelligible, staggers on to the stage, and falls into the third chair. He's drunk. Very.**

"Oh really? I had no idea! He seemed perfectly sober to me!"

Katniss looks at Gale. "You're talking to a _book_ gale. A _book._"

"Yeah, so?"

"Why do I even talk to you?"

**The crowd responds with its token applause, but he's confused and tries to give Effie Trinket a big hug, which she barely manages to fend off.**

We crack up. Again.

**The mayor looks distressed. Since all of this is being televised, right now District 12 is the laughing stock of Panem, and he knows it. He quickly tries to pull the attention back to the reaping by introducing Effie Trinket.**

**Bright and bubbly as ever, Effie Trinket trots to the podium and gives her signature, "Happy Hunger Games! And may be _ever _in your favor!" Hey pink hair must be a wig because her curls have shifted slightly off-centre since her encounter with Haymitch. She goes on a bit about what an honor it is to be here, although everyone knows she's just aching to get bumped up to a better district where they have proper victors, not drunks who molest you in front of the entire nation.**

Everybody's laughing at this point.

**Through the crowd, I spot Gale looking back at me with a ghost of a smile. As far as reapings go, this one at least has a slightly entertainment factor. But suddenly I am thinking of Gale and his forty-two names in that big glass ball and how the odds are not in his favor.**

"I don't think they were in anyone's favor then Katniss." Peeta says gently.

**And maybe he's thinking the same thing about me because his face darkens and he turns away. "But there are thousands of slips," I wish I could whisper to him**

**It's time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, "Ladies first!" and crosses to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear the pin drop, and I'm feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it's not me, that it's not me, that it's not me. Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper and reads out the name in a clear voice**

Everybody leans forward, the suspense is too much. Does Katniss get chosen? Does Gale? You could hear a pin drop.

**It's Primrose Everdeen.**

I suck a breath. WHAT? SHE'S JUST A LITTLE GIRL! SHE'S 12 FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! THEY CALL THAT _ENTERTAINMENT_? REALLY?

I feel murderous. I look around and everyone looks the same. We all look at Katniss. She just looks incredibly sad. She smiles at us and says "It's okay. I volunteered."

I decided not to ask about prim at the moment. After 5 minutes of silence, I ask "What book do we read next?"

They all look at me and say "What about your book? Marked. I'm curious about that."

Yes, they literally chorused that. I shrug and take the book.

I take a deep breath ''Chapter 1.."


	4. Chapter 1 - Marked

**A:N/ Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying the story! Please review your thoughts and ideas about the story. Your help is seriously appreciated.**

**~ sole-13**

**TRIS P.O.V**

I watched as Zoey took the book and sat on the stool. She took a deep breath and began "Chapter 1.."

**Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker.**

"Zombie?"

"Vampire?"

"Aphrodite's brain? Because we know she's brain dead." Erin comments.

Aphrodite narrows her eyes. "Die Dorkamese twins."

Before they could start a war Zoey continued quickly.

**Kayla was talking her nonstop in her usual K-babble, and she didn't even notice him. At first. Actually, now that I think about it, no one else noticed him until he spoke, which is, tragically, more evidence of my freakish inability to fit in.**

"Z, what are you talking about? You're like the most popular girl ever!" Damien spoke up.

Zoey sighed. "This was before I got marked."

I was utterly confused. "What do you mean by _marked?"_

Zoey smiled at me. Her tattoos were unnerving. They beautiful. Pretty lace-like patters framed her face and moved down to her shoulders. She had these deep blue designs on her hands too. Now that I think about it, almost everybody had a tattoo. Stark and Stevie Rae had red tattoos that framed their faces while the rest of the people had either red or blue crescent moon outlines on their foreheads. Weird.

"I'm sure it'll be explained, Tris." She said and went back into her book.

"**No, but Zoey, I **_**swear to god**_** Heath didn't get **_**that **_**drunk after the game. You really shouldn't be so hard on him."**

"**Yeah" I said absently "Sure." Then I coughed. Again. I felt like crap. I must be coming down with what Mr. Wise, my more-than-slightly-insane AP biology teacher called the Teenage Plagues.**

Everybody snickered at Zoey's description. She turned red and buried her head in the book.

**If I died, would it get me out of my geometry test tomorrow? One could only hope.**

"Nice to know I'm not the only one who sucks at math." Leo said while laughing.

"**Zoey, please. Are you even listening? I think he only had like four – I dunno – maybe six beers, **

"No wonder he got drunk! Does any sane person drink that much?" Sadie asked.

"Apparently." I said.

**and maybe like three shots.**

How is he still alive?

**But that's totally beside the point.**

Tobias raised an eyebrow.

**He probably wouldn't even have had hardly any if your stupid parents hadn't made you go home right after the game."**

**We shared a long-suffering look, in total agreement about the latest injustice committed against me by my mom and the step loser she'd married three really long years ago.**

"Are they that bad?" Thalia asked?

Zoey flinched. "My mom was okay. The step-loser who invaded our house was the main problem."

"Oh. Okay."

**Then, after barely half a breath break, K was back with the babbling.**

"Wow. The girl can talk." Christina whispers to me.

"**Plus, he was celebrating. I mean we beat Union!" K shook my shoulder and put her face close to mine. "Hello! Your boyfriend –"**

"That loser is your boyfriend?" Annabeth asks.

Zoey shook her head and smiled.

"**My almost-boyfriend." I corrected her,**

"Oh!"

**trying my best not to cough on her.**

"You should have. She totally deserved it."

"**Whatever. Heath is our quarterback so of course he's going to celebrate. It's been like a million years since Broken Arrow beat Union."**

"**Sixteen." I'm crappy at math, but K's math impairment makes me look like a genius.**

Snorts were heard from a few people.

"**Again, **_**whatever.**_** The point is, he was happy. You should give the boy break."**

"**The point is that he was wasted for like the fifth time this week. I'm sorry, but I don't want to go out with a guy whose main focus in life has changed from trying to play college football to trying to chug a six-pack without puking.**

"Well said Zoey Redbird. Well said."

**Not to mention the fact that he's going to get fat from all that beer." I had to pause to cough. I was feeling a little dizzy and forced myself to take slow, deep breaths when the coughing fit was over. Not that K-babble noticed.**

"Such a great friend." Aphrodite snorted.

"You're the one to talk." Erin started.

"Yeah, since when do _you_ get a say in this?" Shaunee completed.

Aphrodite sucked in a breath to start a rant but the Zoey cut in. "Guys! Enough! Do you need to fight everywhere? Twins, Aphrodite both of you are equally important. So shut up for crying out loud!"

The three of them slunk down. Zoey glared at them for a while then continued.

"**Eww! Heath, **_**fat!**_** Not a visual I want."**

**I managed to ignore another cough. "And kissing him is like sucking on alcohol-soaked feet."**

Ew.

**K scrunched up her face. "Okay, sick. Too bad he's hot."**

**I rolled my eyes, not bothering to hide my annoyance at her typical shallowness.**

"**You're so grumpy when you're sick. Anyway, you have no idea how lost-puppy like Heath looked after you ignored him at lunch. He couldn't even…"**

"Oh my gods! Does she ever stop?" Percy asked with wide eyes.

Zoey smiled grimly and shook her head.

**Then I saw him.**

"Saw who?"

**The dead guy.**

"What?"

**Okay, I realized pretty quick that he wasn't technically 'dead'. He was undead. Or un-human.**

"The term is 'vampyre' genius."

**Whatever. Scientists said one thing, people said another, but the end result was the same. There was no mistaking what he was and even if I hadn't felt the power and darkness that radiated from him, there was no frickin' way I could miss his Mark, the sapphire-blue crescent moon on his forehead and the additional tattooing of entwining knot work that framed his equally blue eyes. He was a vampyre, and worse. He was a tracker.**

"Yikes."

Zoey looked up from her book and announced. "First of all, let me get this straight. The vampyres in this book are spelled as V-A-M-P-Y-R-E. Not V-A-M-P-I-R-E. That Bram Stoker stuff is different."

Everyone looked at her as she went back to the book.

**Well, crap! He was standing by my locker!**

"**Zoey, you're **_**so **_**not listening to me!"**

"Why would she?"

**Then the vampyre spoke and his ceremonial words slicked across the space between us, dangerous and seductive, like blood mixed with melted chocolate.**

"Jeesh, dramatic much?"

"**Zoey Montgomery! Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night call to thee; hearken to her sweet voice. You destiny awaits you at the House of Night!"**

**He lifted one long, white finger and pointed at me. As my forehead exploded in pain Kayla opened her mouth and screamed.**

"Why was _she_ screaming?" Jason asks. "She's not the one who got marked!"

**When the bright splotches finally cleared from my eyes I looked up to see K's colorless face staring down at me.**

**As usual, I said the first ridiculous thing that came to my mind.**

" **K, your eyes are popping out of your head like a fish." **

The tension in the room loosens up a bit. Just a bit.

"**He marked you! Oh, Zoey! You have the outline of that thing on your forehead!" Then she pressed a shaking hand against her white lips, unsuccessfully trying to hold back a sob.**

"It can't be that bad! She's seriously over-reacting." Uriah commented next to me.

"It's not! And yeah, that's Kayla. A total drama queen." Zoey replies.

**I sat up and coughed. I had a killer headache, and I rubbed at the spot right between my eyebrows. It stung as if a wasp had bit me and radiated pain down around my eyes, all the way across my cheekbones. I felt like I might puke.**

**"Zoey!" K was really crying now and had to speak between wet little hiccups. "Oh. My. God. That guy was a Tracker—a vampyre Tracker!"**

"No shit Sherlock." Stark snorted.

**"K." I blinked hard, trying to clear the pain from my head. "Stop crying. You know I hate it when you cry." I reached out to attempt a comforting pat on her shoulders.**

**And she automatically cringed, and moved away from me.**

**I couldn't believe it. She actually cringed, like she was afraid of me. She must have seen the hurt in my eyes because she instantly started a string of breathless K-babble.**

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* BITCH *Cough*

**"Oh, God, Zoey! What are you going to do? You can't go to that place. You can't be one of those things. This can't be happening! Who am I supposed to go to all of our football games with?"**

**I noticed that all during her tirade she didn't once move any closer to me. I clamped down on the sick, hurt feeling inside that threatened to make me burst into tears. My eyes dried instantly. I was good at hiding tears. I should be; I'd had three years to get good at it.**

"Why?" Stark asked. "You never really told me."

Zoey flinched and pointed at the book.

**"It's okay. I'll figure this out. It's probably some . . . some bizarre mistake," I lied.**

"Right.."

**I wasn't really talking; I was just making words come out of my mouth. Still grimacing at the pain in my head, I stood up. Looking around I felt a small measure of relief that K and I were the only ones in the math hall, and then I had to choke back what I knew was hysterical laughter. Had I not been totally psycho about the geometry test from hell scheduled for tomorrow, and had run back to my locker to get my book so I could attempt to obsessively (and pointlessly) study tonight, the Tracker would have found me standing outside in front of the school with the majority of the 1,300 kids who went to Broken Arrow's South Intermediate High School waiting for what my stupid Barbie-clone sister liked to smugly call "the big yellow limos." I have a car, but standing around with the less fortunate who have to ride the buses is a time-honored tradition, not to mention an excellent way to check out who's hitting on who. As it was, there was only one other kid in the math hall—a tall thin dork with messed-up teeth, which I could, unfortunately, see too much of because he was standing there with his mouth flapping open staring at me like I'd just given birth to a litter of flying pigs.**

Everyone cracked up.

Soon, the room was filled with people rolling on the floor clutching their stomachs while Zoey just sat with the book extremely red. Poor Zoey. Hee hee.

**I coughed again, this time a really wet, disgusting cough. The dork made a squeaky little sound and scuttled down the hall to Mrs. Day's room clutching a flat board to his bony chest. Guess the chess club had changed its meeting time to Mondays after school.**

Erin raised her eyebrow. "Seriously?"

**Do vampyres play chess? Were there vampyre dorks? How about Barbie-like vampyre cheerleaders? Did any vampyres play in the band? Were there vampyre Emos with their guy-wearing-girl's-pants weirdness and those awful bangs that cover half their faces? Or were they all those freaky Goth kids who didn't like to bathe much? Was I going to turn into a Goth kid? Or worse, an Emo? I didn't particularly like wearing black, at least not exclusively, and I wasn't feeling a sudden and unfortunate aversion to soap and water, nor did I have an obsessive desire to change my hairstyle and wear too much eyeliner.**

"Oh. My. God. Z. Why are you over reacting so much?" Aphrodite practically shrieked.

Zoey looked at her. "You're talking to a book."

Aphrodite turned very red for about half a second, then she rolled her eyes and flipped her hair.

**All this whirled through my mind while I felt another little hysterical bubble of laughter try to escape from my throat, and was almost thankful when it came out as a cough instead.**

**"Zoey? Are you okay?" Kayla's voice sounded too high, like someone was pinching her, and she'd taken another step away from me.**

**I sighed and felt my first sliver of anger. It wasn't like I'd asked for this. K and I had been best friends since third grade, and now she was looking at me like I had turned into a monster.**

"Some. Friend." Shaunee snorted.

**"Kayla, it's just me. The same me I was two seconds ago and two hours ago and two days ago." I made a frustrated gesture toward my throbbing head. "This doesn't change who I am!"**

**K's eyes teared up again, but, thankfully, her cell phone started singing Madonna's "Material Girl."**

"Who's Madonna?" Katniss asks. I'm confused too.

The others stare at her. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHO MADONNA IS? HOW DO YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF? OHMYGOD! WHAT? YOU DON'T KNOW WHO MADONNA IS! YOU'RE GONNA TELL US NEXT THAT YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHO _MICHAEL JACKSON _IS!" Sadie starts ranting.

Katniss stared at her. "I have no clue who Michael Jackson is."

That's too much for Sadie. She screams and buries her head on Walt's shoulder. "Why oh why? What have we done? Oh the horrors!"

I speak up. ''um, Sadie? We're from the future remember? And everything of your generation was practically destroyed."

Sadie sniffed. "Okay."

**Automatically, she glanced at the caller ID. I could tell by her rabbit-in-the-headlights expression that it was her boyfriend, Jared.**

**"Go on," I said in a flat, tired voice. "Ride home with him."**

**Her look of relief was like a slap in my face.**

Bitch.

**"Call me later?" she threw over her shoulder as she beat a hasty retreat out the side door.**

**I watched her rush across the east lawn to the parking lot. I could see that she had her cell phone smashed to her ear and was talking in animated little bursts to Jared. I'm sure she was already telling him I was turning into a monster.**

**The problem, of course, was that turning into a monster was the brighter of my two choices. Choice Number 1: I turn into a vampyre, which equals a monster in just about any human's mind. Choice Number 2: My body rejects the Change and I die. Forever.**

The vampyres flinch.

**So the good news is that I wouldn't have to take the geometry test tomorrow.**

Everybody cracked up. Yet again.

**The bad news was that I'd have to move into the House of Night, a private boarding school in Tulsa's Midtown, known by all my friends as the Vampyre Finishing School, where I would spend the next four years going through bizarre and unnameable physical changes, as well as a total and permanent life shake-up. And that's only if the whole process didn't kill me.**

Everybody flinches at that. Again.

**Great. I didn't want to do either. I just wanted to attempt to be normal, despite the burden of my mega-conservative parents, my troll-like younger brother, and my oh-so-perfect older sister.**

"Yikes."

**I wanted to pass geometry. I wanted to keep my grades up so that I could get accepted into the veterinary college at OSU and get out of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. But most of all, I wanted to fit in—at least at school. Home had become hopeless, so all I was left with were my friends and my life away from my family.**

**Now that was being taken away from me, too.**

Looks of sympathy were shot at Zoey.

**I rubbed my forehead and then messed with my hair until it semi-covered my eyes, and, with any luck, the mark that had appeared above them. Keeping my head ducked down, like I was fascinated with the goo that had somehow formed in my purse, I hurried toward the door that led to the student parking lot.**

**But I stopped short of going outside. Through the side-by-side windows in the institutional-looking doors I could see Heath. Girls flocked around him, posing and flipping their hair, while guys revved ridiculously big pickup trucks and tried (but mostly failed) to look cool. Doesn't it figure that I would choose that to be attracted to? No, to be fair to myself I should remember that Heath used to be incredibly sweet, and even now he had his moments. Mostly when he bothered to be sober.**

Zoey flinched while reading. She blinked a few times and then continued.

**High-pitched girl giggles flitted to me from the parking lot. Great. Kathy Richter, the biggest ho in school, was pretending to smack Heath.**

"Slut." Christina whispered to me.

**Even from where I was standing it was obvious she thought hitting him was some kind of mating ritual. As usual, clueless Heath was just standing there grinning. Well, hell, my day just wasn't going to get any better. And there sat my robin's egg–blue 1966 VW Bug right in the middle of them. No. I couldn't go out there. I couldn't walk into the middle of all of them with this thing on my forehead. I'd never be able to be part of them again. I already knew too well what they'd do. I remembered the last kid a Tracker had Chosen at SIHS.**

"Who was it?" Grover asks.

"Well, you'll need to be patient. It's in the next paragraph."

**It happened at the beginning of the school year last year. The Tracker had come before school started and had targeted the kid as he was walking to his first hour. I didn't see the Tracker, but I did see the kid afterward, for just a second, after he dropped his books and ran out of the building, his new Mark glowing on his pale forehead and tears washing down his too white cheeks. I never forgot how crowded the halls had been that morning, and how everyone had backed away from him like he had the plague as he rushed to escape out the front doors of the school. I had been one of those kids who had backed out of his way and stared, even though I'd felt really sorry for him. I just hadn't wanted to be labeled as that-one-girl-who's-friends-with-those-freaks. Sort of ironic now, isn't it?**

"That's not ironic. That's karma." Piper said.

Everyone looked at her.

"What? I believe in Karma okay?"

**Instead of going to my car I headed for the nearest restroom, which was, thankfully, empty. There were three stalls—yes, I double-checked each for feet. On one wall were two sinks, over which hung two medium-sized mirrors. Across from the sinks the opposite wall was covered with a huge mirror that had a ledge below it for holding brushes and makeup and whatnot. I put my purse and my geometry book on the ledge, took a deep breath, and in one motion lifted my head and brushed back my hair.**

People sucked in their breath.

It was like staring into the face of a familiar stranger. You know, that person you see in a crowd and swear you know, but you really don't? Now she was me—the familiar stranger.

Okay..?

**She had my eyes. They were the same hazel color that could never decide whether it wanted to be green or brown, but my eyes had never been that big and round. Or had they? She had my hair—long and straight and almost as dark as my grandma's had been before hers had begun to turn silver. The stranger had my high cheekbones, long, strong nose, and wide mouth—more features from my grandma and her Cherokee ancestors. But my face had never been that pale. I'd always been olive-ish, much darker skinned than anyone else in my family. But maybe it wasn't that my skin was suddenly so white . . . maybe it just looked pale in comparison to the dark blue outline of the crescent moon that was perfectly positioned in the middle of my forehead. Or maybe it was the horrid fluorescent lighting. I hoped it was the lighting.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

**I stared at the exotic-looking tattoo. Mixed with my strong Cherokee features it seemed to brand me with a mark of wildness . . . as if I belonged to ancient times when the world was bigger . . . more barbaric.**

"Oh my god. Do you need to be so dramatic all the time?" Aphrodite shrieked.

"Hey! Leave her alone! None of you are lettin' her read in peace ya know." Stevie Rae said.

"Whatever _bumpkin_."

**From this day on my life would never be the same. And for a moment—just an instant—I forgot about the horror of not belonging and felt a shocking burst of pleasure, while deep inside of me the blood of my grandmother's people rejoiced.**

"Okay, that's the end of the chapter. Which book next?" Zoey asked.

"Let's read _Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief_." Zia said. "After that we'll read the _Red Pyramid. _Percy do you want to read?"

"No. I have dyslexia." Percy said.

"Okay. I'll read then."

Zia grabs the book and sits on the stool. "Chapter 1.."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**A:N/ Hey! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I never understood the thing about how Percy reads his own books in other 'reading the books'. He has dyslexia remember? Anyway, please review!**

**~sole-13**


	5. Author's note(Important-ish!)

**Hello there children!(unless you're not children, then in that case it's probably teenagers or should I say _adults? _ok whatever! Hello there people! I decided I shall update a short author's note and a poll! *drum roll*.  
**

**Me : Am I over-reacting?**

**Thalia : Are you kidding? We thought you were high!**

**Me : Well, I most certainly am not high. Being high is for pansycakes._  
_**

**Uriah : Hey! Get your own swears! That's mine!**

**Me : Pansycakes is not even a swear Uriah! It's a dessert!**

**Percy : Could you just get to the point? Please?**

**Me : Okay. Fine. I do not own Divergent trilogy, The Hunger Games trilogy, House of Night, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Kane chronicles. Now excuse me while I go cry my eyes out.**

**Sadie : That's your note? Seriously? That's not even a decent Note!**

**Me : It's not my note! Okay my note is not even a proper note. And since I'm making a note, might as well claim that I don't own any of these series!**

**Shaunee : Girl, if you don't stop your bullshit-**

**Erin : -I will cut you.**

**Me : *gulp*. okay. Hello there people! Wait I already said that.**

**Erin and Shaunee : *sharpens knife*.**

**Me : Okay! Don't kill me! Okay people, you all are the only ones who are actually nice to me. I'm so lucky. Anyway, my question for you all is:**

**If Annabeth Chase, Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior got into a fight, who will win and who will lose? I chose Annabeth, katniss and Tris because they don't have any magical abilities. Thalia has lightning, Zoey, Shaunee, Erin and Stevie Rae all have their elemental affinities, Sadie and Zia know magic. It will not be fair. And none of the guys because this only a girl vs girl thing. Yeah.**

**Tris : What?!**

**Annabeth : Seriously? I would whoop all of their asses!**

**Katniss : Not if I shoot yours first.**

**Me : SHUT UP! Let the people decide!**

**So guys, review your answers to me and the top 5 ones will be mentioned/tagged(whatever) in my next chapter! Heck, if it's interesting enough I'll probably update a chapter on them fighting. A friendly right of course. I'm such a peaceful person, I'll probably be Amity. And maybe a hufflepuff. My dad could be Apollo. Yeah. Anyway I am going out of track. Again. So Annabeth vs. Katniss vs. Tris guys!**

**Review your answers! Until then, see ya!**

**~Sole-13.**

**Zoey : Finally. I never thought she'd shut up.**

***SMACK***


End file.
